Plant Trait Networks: Improved Resolution of the Dimensionality of Adaptation. (October 2020) - He, Nianpeng
Abstract : Functional traits are frequently used to evaluate plant adaptation across environments. Yet, traits tend to have multiple functions and interactions, which cannot be accounted for in traditional correlation analyses. Plant trait networks (PTNs) clarify complex relationships among traits, enable the calculation of metrics for the topology of trait coordination and the importance of given traits in PTNs, and how they shift across communities. Recent studies of PTNs provide new insights into some important topics, including trait dimensionality, trait spectra (including the leaf economic spectrum), stoichiometric principles, and the variation of phenotypic integration along gradients of resource availability. PTNs provide improved resolution of the multiple dimensions of plant adaptation across scales and responses to shifting resources, disturbance regimes, and global change. Highlights: Most functional traits are multifunctional and adaptations to multiple selective pressures, complicating the use of traditional correlation and clustering approaches to establish their integration and relative mechanistic importance. New developments in the analysis and application of plant trait networks (PTNs) increase the resolution and inference of adaptations and responses of plants across scales. Communities vary in their constraints on given traits, resulting in variation in PTN topology, and the relative importance of component traits. PTNs provide a multidimensional approach for evaluating the adaptations and response of plants across lineages, life forms, ontogenetic stages, and environments.